Sure, laptops in general are smaller and more powerful than
ever. But lugging 6 to 10 pounds of hardware and accessories
through a crowded airport or around an office building isn't
anyone's idea of a mobile good time. For entrepreneurs willing
to make sacrifices, ultraportable computers deliver the lightweight
goods. You'll have to give up the 15-inch display and the
battery-sapping processor. You might even have to leave a few
peripherals behind. In exchange, you'll get a capable notebook
that fits into a mobile working lifestyle.

This category may eventually be crowded by the new tablet PCs,
but until then, it stands on its own. These really aren't
desktop replacement notebooks, but rather desktop supplements for
hard-core mobile warriors. A typical ultraportable comes with
around or under a 12-inch screen, weighs less than 4 pounds and
features a battery-savvy processor.

Intel's new battery-extending and wireless-enabled mobile
processor family, dubbed Centrino, is just starting to pop up in
ultraportables. (For more on Centrino, see
"Portable Light") Here, we're dealing with the
established processors like Crusoe and the Intel Mobile Pentium
III.

While the Fujitsu LifeBook P-2000 has a built-in DVD/CD-RW drive
that goes along with it, many models save even more weight with a
docking station. Both the $1,999 (all prices street) Gateway 200
and the $1,499 Dell Latitude X200 feature a docking station with
floppy and CD-RW drives. If you need to take these capabilities
with you, you would have to either invest in a small external drive
or take along the docking base when you go. An external DVD/CD-RW
comes standard with the $1,689 Sony VAIO SRX99. The Toshiba Portege
4010 just tops 4.2 pounds when you take the DVD drive along.

When choosing an ultraportable, you'll have to decide what
screen size and which keyboard are comfortable for you. Naturally,
the best way to do this is to try them all out. The keyboards on
these machines all reach or come close to being a standard laptop
size. The 12.1-inch screens like the ones you'll find on the
$1,999 IBM ThinkPad X30 are the norm. And the Fujitsu LifeBook
P-2000 squeezes in with a space-saving 10.6-inch display.

When you're out on the road for long stretches, you
don't need your laptop to wheeze and conk out from lack of
energy. The $1,825 Hewlett-Packard Compaq Evo N410C, for example,
says it produces "over two hours" on a standard battery.
The safe bet is to invest in a backup battery or an extended-life
battery. What's the catch? You guessed it: more weight. The IBM
ThinkPad X30 boasts up to five hours of battery life with an
optional additional battery reaching around nine hours of
performance. If you can get enough juice to get you from outlet to
outlet, then you'll be fine.

Shopping
List
Check out these lightweights! But remember, there's more to
consider than less bulk. See if you can get your fingers on these
babies.